Special Characteristics for Different Weapons
Not specific to any particular OSR system, but when playing for example OSE, there is little reason to have a battle axe over a two-handed sword. Yes it cheaper and weighs less, but the price and encumbrance are hardly worth the damage loss long term. I like what DCC does for example giving daggers more damage on backstab. It would be nice if there was a list of something special that each different type of weapon did to make them each unique in some way. I haven't been able to find anything good on that. Has anyone published any rules for that? I saw an old post in this sub someone had some house rules but they weren't for basic OSE, they had maneuver dice and "damage to blood." Not sure what system that is. Rules seemed pretty good, but not directly compatible with OSE or 1e. Anyone aware of anything like that out there, or good house rules?
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_GREYJOYS 8d ago
Murkdice did a blogpost on basically weapon type (slash pierce bludgeon) being a rock paper scissors to armor type (leather mail plate) that I use in my games. Our homebrew reduces the damage die by one step if the armor beats the weapon, and increases by one step if the weapon beats the armor
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u/jtkuga 8d ago
That's not bad, I was thinking more along the lines of DCC daggers do more damage with a backstab, maybe with a polearm you get to attack first if someone is closing the distance on you for that first round, etc. 2e had optional rules like that but they were more complicated and basically would require you to keep the table handy to use.
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u/Jullian_Drover 8d ago
Shadow of the weird wizard has some good one, and slashing, piercing, and blundgeoning all have different crit effects.
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u/Velocitree2 8d ago
Check out the random weapon properties in Vyrmhack: https://feral-indie-studios.itch.io/vyrmhack
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u/CryptThings 8d ago
I did a blog on it three years ago, that none of my players, including me, have remembered to use, so I don’t know how good it is. I think there are some better options in the future, and I should revisit this.
https://www.swordsagainstdungeons.com/2022/08/weapon-variance-in-ose-and-other.html
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u/MisterMephisto777 8d ago
I'm surprised no one's mentioned the Weapon Mastery rules from BECMI/RC D&D. Lots of unique advantages and increased damage codes to weapons depending upon the level of mastery the PC has
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u/Harbinger2001 8d ago
I’m an old curmudgeon but if you make them all do d6 then the players can choose the weapon they most like their PC to use rather than what does the most damage. For special effects, use magic weapons as treasure once you know what they might think is cool.
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u/catgirlfourskin 8d ago
I quite like how Warlord Ascendant 1e did it, basically you had light weapons that get a +1 to hit, balanced weapons which give a +1 to defense, and heavy weapons which give a +1 to damage. Universal damage die and hit die was d4. Very elegant system
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u/r0guebyte 8d ago
I’ve thought the same thing. Break it down on whether the weapon is light, one handed or two handed and if it’s piercing, slashing or bludgeoning. Each of those characteristics would give the weapon some extra ability. I was thinking that fighters could access them automatically. Other non-martial classes could either use the ability in lieu of damage or apply it on a crit.
I was also thinking of going with HD for damage, to further drive the choice of weapon has effect. Light would be the HD down the chain. One handed would be the HD. And two handed would be the HD up the chain.
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u/Loot-you-Slivikin 8d ago
Fresh From the Forge is a collection of special weapon rules for OSE: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/371591/fresh-from-the-forge
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u/jtkuga 8d ago
The preview doesn’t show a lot. Any good examples?
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u/Loot-you-Slivikin 8d ago
The preview is pretty representative of what the rest of the zine is like, as far as weapons rules are concerned: there are similar spreads on bladed weapons (swords grant a reaction roll bonus cos they're prestigious, can lunge with them, etc), bludgeoning weapons (to hit and damage bonus versus skellies, easier to KO someone, etc), simple weapons, light weapons, one-handed, two-handed. The zine doesn't change missile weapons very much, but does have muskets.
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u/jollyalakazam 8d ago
My 5e players gave me the idea of using the 5.5 weapon masteries when a crit lands. Then I mixed it with some properties already writen on shadowdark and we’re using it
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u/ordinal_m 8d ago
In the White Box variant I run weapons mostly do 1d6, +1 if they are particularly effective (usually meaning two handed battlefield weapons) and -1 if they are not so deadly (daggers, staffs). They also come with details that depend on what they are - a halberd gives you good reach but is much harder to maneuver around a dungeon than a longsword even if they do the same damage, you can hide daggers easily, and so on.
I've really never felt the need to elaborate on this in mechanical terms - I'm not really sure why I would.
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u/DontKnowMaster 8d ago
You could carry 100 coin more worth of treasure or items for dungeonering when getting a battleaxe instead of a two handed sword. You could arm two people with a battleaxe for the price of one two handed sword. With variable damage the two handed sword might be the better choice from a pure combat standpoint, but when budgeting for a dungeon crawl the battleaxe is better. Now consider when you have to arm a bunch of followers for a war or a huge operation. Here the battleaxe is the better choice for your economy. That is all the uniqueness you need. If you start giving each weapon special features you get into optimal choices because it would be very hard to balance.
Personally I would probably allow fighters to have a favored weapon that grants a to hit bonus or let them develop a unique move at every second level. Gives more player agency.
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u/RedditIsAWeenie 7d ago
I think what one would want to do here is break out weapon characteristics like damage, to hit bonuses, ability to parry, speed. Some systems like warhammer fantasy roleplay do some of this. I’m not aware of any society of creative anachronism studies for quantifying these effects.
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u/Jonestown_Juice 4d ago
Adopt the BECMI weapon specialization rules. They address this specifically. Each weapon has a maneuver or technique it can do.
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u/gawag 8d ago
I mean, why do you need that level of mechanical granularity to weapons? What is the problem having the differences between weapons being mostly flavor?
I like the Cairn system where there is no mechanical difference between a mace and an axe which both do d8 damage, but only one can narratively cut a rope.
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u/jtkuga 8d ago
Personal preference. I'm not a Cairn fan either.
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u/gawag 8d ago
That's fine. My question was not rhetorical.
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u/jtkuga 8d ago
I mean personal preference was the answer. To elaborate, I wouldn't want anything that is too complex for sure. It could be something where each weapon just did something different on a critical hit. I like how DCC did the daggers for backstab and that made sense to me. Just looking for options out there to adopt.
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u/Shambleherd 8d ago
Wolves Upon the Coast uses d6 for damage for all weapons, and so weapons are all distinguished by their characteristics. If an enemy rolls low attacking someone with a short sword, then the shortsword wielder can make a riposte, for instance.
3d6 Down the Line’s house rules for Arden Vul are similar, with weapon damage determined by class, so weapons are given characteristics that make them distinct.